What are backlinks and how to check them?

What are back links in SEO and why should I care?

What exactly is a “backlink”? – “Backlinks” is a term used in SEO and refers to links from other websites pointing back to your homepage.

The phrase “Links from other websites that point back to my website” is easier to understand if you do not work with Search Engine Optimization, but “backlinks” is a lot faster to use in a conversation.

Illustration of links from other websites pointing to your homepage.

Why should I care about backlinks?

You should care a lot, since backlinks is a big factor when determining the value of your website and how it should be ranked compared to other webpages when people search online.

When the concept of SEO started there was few other factors that influenced your website as much, but over the years Google and other search engines have evolved and looks at hundreds of different factors to determine how they should rank each website.

Backlinks is still a major factor, so you should keep a close eye on the links pointing to your website.

Not all backlinks are identical

A link is a link, right? No, not really. A backlink has several factors that all influence the value of it for you.

Where exactly does it link?

The link itself should point to a page on your website that exists, otherwise it has little value for people clicking the link and for your SEO. A normal link profile for a website will normally see the majority of the links pointing to the frontpage, the main page.

Other factors that influence the value of a backlinks

Where is it from? Google will take a look at where the link comes from. If you have a website related to coffee machines in Germany it will not give much benefit to have a thousands of links from Russian websites in a completely different language and completely different area. Backlinks from Google.

In fact, having thousands of spammy links from forums and comments is a very fast way to get your website devalued or even removed completely.

How to check your backlinks

There are many ways to check which other pages links to your website. Google Search Console is a popular tool among SEO specialists, but it involves a little extra work to verify your website.

Once you have created a Google account and verified you are the owner of your website, you will find a lot of details about your website, including who links to you.

There are other online tools out there for backlink checking, most will work by crawling other websites and discovering links that point to you.

Using WordPress? Here is a faster way

You can also use our WordPress SEO plugin – SEO Booster Pro which will do it faster for you if you have a WordPress website. One of the modules in the pro version checks whenever a visitor comes from another url than your own website.

You can see a list of backlinks, how many visitors they have brought, how the link is pointing to your website and much more. Each link that is discovered is automatically reviewed and verified.

All links can be exported as in to your favorite spreadsheet editor.

Read more on the Backlinks Page in the documentation section for more details.